Mike Ashley has agreed to answer MPs’ questions about pay and working conditions at his Sports Direct chain, "ending months of refusals -- as long as parliamentarians first travel to Derbyshire to see his warehouse for themselves," according to Mark Vandevelde of the FINANCIAL TIMES. In a letter sent to MPs on Monday night, the billionaire founder of Sports Direct said that he would attend parliament on June 7 "if the committee agreed to an earlier meeting at Shirebrook." Ashley "offered them the use of his helicopter for the 150-mile journey." Sports Direct has been criticized for "employing many of its shop workers on zero-hours contracts, which offer no assurances about how many hours employees will work or how much they will earn." Reports have alleged that workers in the Shirebrook warehouse "are in effect paid less than the minimum wage, because they are forced to queue for security checks on unpaid time." Ashley, who makes few public appearances, "tried in March to defuse the row by inviting MPs and the news media to a warehouse tour." While journalists accepted the offer, "parliamentarians declined." A former associate said, "He is very reluctant to make public appearances that are not on his own turf, because he knows that is an environment in which he does not perform well" (FT, 5/17).
